Pinkel: "What I do is I fight. And I compete."

Monday

Nov 26, 2012 at 12:01 AMNov 26, 2012 at 8:30 PM

Dave Matter

In what might have been a dress rehearsal for his state-of-the-program press conference scheduled for Tuesday morning, Missouri football Coach Gary Pinkel hit the airwaves Monday night and addressed several topics on his final radio show appearance of the year. Taking questions from host Mike Kelly at Buffalo Wild Wings in Columbia, Pinkel took on a more spirited, candid tone as he defended his track record and discussed challenges his program faces after a 5-7 season, what he described as "a crummy year." Pinkel looked back on the team's struggles and touched on possible changes to Missouri's coaching staff and schemes, as well as the team's quarterback situation for 2013.

But he saved his most compelling comments to reflect on the personal toll the season took and the challenges that lie ahead.

"I could not wait to get to work this morning," he said. "I got up early and worked out and got in early. The challenge of getting back and winning again and getting back to a bowl game, that drives me. I'm high energy. That's important to me. It's important that this program is successful. I've put a lot into this. We continue to build and make it better. Our fan base has grown so much since I've been here and it's so awesome to see it. … Let's get back to work."

Pinkel threw out some stats on where MU stands among BCS conference teams for winning percentage, saying the Tigers are 14th in wins since 2007, "counting this crummy year," he said.

"When you fall off that, you don’t think that's upsetting to me?" he added. "You don’t think that destroys me personally? It does. But what I do is I fight. And I compete. We'll get back. We'll get this thing going. I've never had more energy and been more excited to come to work … and get going."

Pinkel mentioned some advice he used to get from his late father, George Pinkel, who died in February 2010.

"The challenge that you have, to me, is always to fix things," he said. "It gets back to my dad, back when I was struggling at Toledo. I'd get up to go to work after we had a loss … on Sunday morning, I'd go in to do my TV show … and he'd look at me and say, 'Go fix it.' It used to drive me crazy, because I wanted him to feel sorry for me. And he'd say, 'Go fix it. Go fix it.'

"So, I got up this morning and I started fixing it."

Pinkel touched on several more topics during nearly 30 minutes alongside Kelly…

On Missouri fans: "When I first got here, we played a good team close (blogger's note: it was Texas) and they were cheering us, which drove me crazy. Now our fans have an expectation level of winning and an expectation level of going to bowl games. And they should. That's refreshing to me. Our fans get it. What we did as far as attendance this year, what we did as far as traveling to Tennessee, to Florida, to South Carolina, and seeing the fans there, they did a remarkable job. They should have a high expectation level. I'm glad. That's the way it should be."

"They trust me to get us back to a bowl game and get going again," he said later. "That's my job to get done and I'm going to work my tail off to get that done."

On making changes to his coaching staff: "Anybody that's in business out there knows that … what will destroy your company is not hiring the wrong person. That's not going to destroy your company. What's going to destroy your company is having that person stay in your organization. … I look at personnel all the time. Whether a guy's been with me five years, 20 years or one year, it doesn't matter. If you can't fit in and you can't deliver to our program, then I'll make a change. What I'm not going to do is I'm not going to be the coach who changes guys just to make it sound like I'm mixing things up. I go back to how I manage people. We have a good staff. They're good at what they do. If they weren't, I would get rid of them and make changes."

As for his returning personnel, Pinkel said Missouri's offensive line will benefit from getting healthy returns from Taylor Chappell and Justin Britt, who both suffered season-ending knee injuries. He also mentioned Ole Miss transfer Mitch Hall, who becomes eligible in 2013 after sitting out this past season.

"All those guys that played who were second- and third-team players who started for us, those guys are going to weigh 10 more pounds," he said. "Instead of bench pressing 340 they're going to be up to 365. They're going to grow a little more hair on their face, mature a little bit and not be such baby faced guys. That's how you get better. That's what you do in your program."

Kelly brought up the quarterback position and asked if it will be an open competition for the starting job in the spring. "There's no question about it," Pinkel said. "We're going to have competition all over the field. It's really simple in our program: The best player plays. That's how we do it. OK? Brad Smith beat out a three-year starter as a redshirt freshman because he beat him out in practice. … Every job's open. It's all based on competition. That's the philosophy of our program."

Pinkel often uses the Smith-Kirk Farmer competition from 2002 to illustrate his program's stance on "the best player plays" rule, but was it just a coincidence he mentioned a redshirt freshman QB beating out a three-year starter and senior quarterback? Missouri could have a similar situation in 2013 with Maty Mauk, a redshirt freshman, waiting in the wings behind James Franklin, a senior and two-year returning starter.

The Tigers could have a new but familiar face in the tailback competition this spring. Team trainer Rex Sharp later said during the show that Henry Josey is "doing fantastic" in his recovery from 2011's devastating knee injury. Sharp said he's placed no restrictions on what Josey's allowed to do physically and that he could have played this past season for other teams. MU decided to take a more cautious approach with Josey's recovery, but Sharp said he expects him back for next season and indicated he'll practice in the spring.

Sharp said 12 players had in-season surgeries, which is unusually high, and another six will undergo surgeries this offseason, including some, he said, who had injuries that weren't disclosed publicly.